Caliginous
by All The Stars In The Sky
Summary: Caliginous; darkness. It is her life, and this is her story. Even if it's all she's ever known, even if she believes there's nothing else, she's about to discover a radiance that is unlike anything she's ever experienced.
1. Prologue

_The air was quiet and unmoving, bringing an eerie silence with the warm colored dusk. There was barely a sliver of sun left above the horizon, which cast everything in long, mysterious shadows. It was getting cooler, sending chills through the cats fur who were seated in the shadow of a grouping of trees, their tense bodies unmoving. All except one. _

_He paced up and down, his tail slowly waving back and forth and powerful muscles showing through his dark black fur. He was the only cat who seemed the least bit relaxed. Finally, the massive tom was still. He sat in front of four young cats, with two cats on his right and another on his left. They were almost as big as him. He had dark yellow eyes; they looked as cold and hard as rocks. His intense gaze travelled to each of the smaller cat's faces. They did not flinch, but one slightly trembled. _

_Finally, he spoke._

_"As you now know, your training is finished. I expect for you to provide me with your abilities as the ones before you have. We all know the consequences if you do not..." His deep voice trailed off, and a strange look of darkness appeared inside of his eyes. One of the cats sitting beside him twitched its tail, almost excitedly._

_"Your first task is coming up quickly. I know you are all prepared, so I will expect nothing less than perfect from you. All of you." The last three words were spoken with ferocity one of the smaller cats flinched, the same one that had been trembling moments before. The large cat's gleaming eyes focused directly on him. He growled, but then a smirk was pulling at the corners of his mouth._

_"Why, thank you for reminding me," he drawled. "I knew there was another matter that needed addressing." The smaller cat looked terrified. He had a dark tabby coat and large, frightened hazel eyes that were darting about nervously. The black tom shot forward and gripped the tabby's scruff in his teeth. He pulled the smaller cat farther into the trees, past a few bushes and ferns. The remaining cats could hear the dragging of the tabby's body across the forest floor grow softer, until it was as quiet as a whisper. _

_They were all still, the only sound was their soft breathing. The smallest cat of the three left, a black she-cat, pricked her ears as a piercing screech echoed through the empty air. Her eyes widened in horror. _

_Only moments later, the black cat returned alone. There was blood staining his paws._

_"Your first task begins now," he said, and the three young cats rose and and trotted away in opposite directions._

_His only watched one of the cats leave, his eyes twisted in a sick, desperate longing._


	2. Chapter 1

_Whisper..._

The only sound you could hear through the bracken and ferns, and it could easily be mistaken for a light breeze.

_Whisper..._

The soft sound escaping her lips, not intended for anyone to hear.

_Whisper..._

That was her name, and it suited her well. Why? Because when she was under orders of a task, when she was in the forest searching, a whisper of sound was all the warning you got. That's why she was so useful. That's partly why she was still alive.

The moon was high in the sky and the stars were glittering icily, but the darkness was comforting; it embraced her and kept her hidden, giving her an advantage to her enemies. She stopped moving and scented the air. In her mind she sifted through the different smells, trying to zero in on the one she was looking for. It was faint, but she caught it and hurried along in that direction, energy and determination jolting through her body like a bolt of lightning.

The night did not cause her drowsiness, nor did it make her any less sufficient at completing her job. A few nights before she did a task she switched her sleeping habits around, staying up throughout the night and sleeping during the daytime, usually hidden in an abandoned burrow or somewhere just as dark. It was smart, and her companions quickly caught on and used her strategy for themselves. It helped them do better, but no one could ever be as silent and quick as she.

The moon was faint, and as she slunk through the undergrowth, patches of light peeked through the trees every once in awhile. She tried to stay in the thickest part of the forest.

The scent she was following got stronger, and excitement pulsed through her. She was quicker, softer. She was so close - but there was more. She was puzzled; scents that were unfamiliar to her were now crowding her nose. Many, many cats, living together, marking borders? It was unheard of to her. Luckily, the scent she was following veered sharply out of the area marked by borders, and deeper into the forest.

She knew the cat she was searching for was in the clearing a few tail-lengths in front of her; the tip of her tail twitched. Slowly, carefully, she peeked her head around some ferns and narrowed her eyes at the sight of a dark tabby pelt. She watched the cat pick at a bloody carcass that was once a squirrel. He was distracted. She was ready. The moment was _perfect._

She didn't even disturb the bracken or ferns when she darted out of the darkness, a streak of black; invisible. Her victim's scream of surprise and pain was muted as she pushed his face into the earth, her claws unsheathed. She made it quick as possible; a brief, skillfully aimed bite to the correct part of his neck, and his struggling ceased.

The she-cat stood back and looked at what she had done. There was no remorse, there was no guilt or sadness or regret in her gaze. Only satisfaction.

Then she was gone, and the only sound was a _whisper._

_"I had to."_

--

Birchfall padded into camp with a vole and two mice hanging from his salivating jaws, their bodies still warm. His muscles ached from running around since dawn, but he knew that there was still work to do. The Clan was thriving, abundant in kits and queens in need of fresh-kill and nurturing. He set the prey down on the fresh-kill pile and padded over to a shady spot in the hollow, flopping down on his side for a quick moment of rest. He began grooming his fur, smoothing it down and cleaning the dirt out of it.

He had barely started when Whitewing walked awkwardly up to him, nervously staring at the ground in front of where he sat instead of directly at him. He could've sighed. It was obvious that the she-cat was crushing on him, and he wished she would stop being so shy around him. She was a lot of fun when she wasn't acting all weird

"Firestar said you have to go on a patrol with Squirrelflight, Foxpaw, and Thornclaw," she muttered, then quickly trotted away. Birchfall nodded his thanks. He got up and padded over to the waiting border patrol, muttering quietly under his breath about she-cats and their silly behaviour.

He greeted his clanmates with a brisk nod, then they headed through the thorn tunnel and into the forest. They followed a worn path towards the WindClan border, although Foxpaw kept wandering off to scent something, then Squirrelflight had to go after him when he was taking to long. It was a tedious trip, but finally, they were there.

A slight breeze pulled itself gently across the border, carrying with it the scents of rabbit, moor, and WindClan. Birchfall wrinkled his nose in disgust, and then headed away from the lake, following the border markings and refreshing them as he went.

He scented carefully, making sure that no WindClan scents had crossed onto ThunderClan territory. Soon he was far enough away that his companions turned into tiny dots. Then he rounded a corner and they disappeared from view. He was almost at the edge of both territories.

He finally finished marking borders, and inhaled deeply one last time to be sure; no WindClan cat would _ever _get away with trespassing. There were no WindClan scents, but there was another aroma of a cat that was unfamiliar to him.

A look of confusion crossed over his face, and he began following the faint trace of cat, even more surprised to find that it had only entered the territory briefly, then headed back to wherever it had come from almost immediately after. It was definately not a Clan cat. There were no remains of fresh-kill or any odor of blood, so Birchfall headed back to notify the others. It may not have stolen any prey, but this unknown rogue had to be reported to Firestar.

**Thank you for reading, the first chapter may be a bit dry, but don't worry, it gets better. Please review, because I really don't want to waste time writing a story no one wants to read. Even if the review is saying that I need to work on my writing or that you don't like my story at all. Thanks, Sky!**


	3. Chapter 2

_Whisper..._

Her body seemed to fly across the empty moor, her paws were only just brushing the ground. She narrowed her eyes and slowed her pace as she came back to a familiar setting. Trees formed a forest which she raced through gracefully, darting past bushes and ferns until she came to a clearing. The weak sun sent dull rays of light through the branches and lit up the ground, as well as the large, black cat that was waiting there.

He was anticipating her arrival, but she could also sense his irritation as his tail twitched ever so slightly. She pretended not to notice, and sat down with a haughty look on her face. The black tom seemed to relax a bit after sensing her arrogant attitude.

"Ahh, Whisper. You're the first back," he purred, looking quite pleased.

"Ahh, but Coal, I always am. How does this still surprise you?" she replied mockingly.

His paw flashed out of nowhere, cuffing the side of her face with sheathed claws. Despite the fact that he did not hurt her as much as he could have, her face throbbed and her head spun. She let out a surprised yelp and then began hissing quietly. His massive paws were powerful and heavy; even a 'light' blow for him could be a very painful smack for it's recipient.

She tried to push the pain away and forced herself to look back up at Coal, who was sneering at her and waiting to see if she would say anything.

"I'm assuming that you completed your task," he stated calmly, giving her a look that told her, _'If my assumption is wrong I'm not going to be very happy'_.

Whisper nodded. Her previously proud and rather stuck-up mood had now vanished.

Both cats turned their heads as a dark gray tom and a calico she-cat trotted noisily toward them, fresh-kill dangling from their jaws. Whisper dipped her head in greeting and then moved forward to grab some food and see how her companions had done on their own tasks.

The gray cat dropped his prey and looked at Whisper, grinning. "And as usual, the amazing Whisper is first to arrive back from her seemingly _impossible _task. Well, impossible for anyone but her!" The tom winked as Whisper started to growl.

"Shut it, Mallow," she teased, and playfully swiped a paw at him. "How'd you do, Ember?" she asked the small calico that had padded over to join her and Mallow after dropping off her own prey.

"I did fine," she murmured, not meeting Whisper's eyes. _Uh-oh, _thought Whisper, _She got caught._ Ember always had a tendency to make a lot of noise, attracting more cats, then having to kill them all. Whisper gazed back at her with sympathy. If Coal found out, he wouldn't be happy.

Glancing toward's the fresh-kill, Whisper saw that Coal had already grabbed his food and was devouring a rabbit as if he had been starving. "Let's eat," she mewed, and the three younger cats grabbed their prey and sat down beside Coal.

"Oh," said Whisper suddenly, with her mouth full of chewed up mouse, "By the way, Coal, there's a whole bunch of cats where you sent me, who live together. At least, I think there's more than one group of them, more than us, who are marking borders, and staying in the same areas."

"That's gross," Mallow grumbled about her full mouth, but everyone ignored him.

Coal's yellow eyes focused on Whisper with intense interest. She blinked slowly. This was important information, and she wondered what Coal would do with it.

"Tomorrow I want all three of you to go back and see if you can find out more about these strange cats. I _know _you won't get caught."

--

Fury shot through Birchfall's body, propelling him through the undergrowth and out onto the flat moorland. His green eyes blazed and he hissed threateningly at the wiry WindClan cats that were glaring angrily at him from their side of the border, where they hadn't been only moments before.

He could hear Cloudtail and Sandstorm hissing and spitting beside him, and dug his claws into the soft earth, imagining it was those WindClanner's pelts. Sandstorm paced slowly closer to their border, then leaped gracefully over the stream. Birchfall and Cloudtail followed.

They were only a tail-length away from the cats, two of whom Birchfall recognized. There was Tornear and Breezepaw, and a white she-cat who Birchfall assumed was Breezepaw's mentor. The fur on the back of their neck's stood up and they narrowed their eyes menacingly.

"Stay off of our territory!" hissed Sandstorm, lashing her tail.

"We were chasing _WindClan_ prey!," retorted Tornear.

"And we're supposed to believe _you!? _Everyone knows that half the things that come from a WindClan cat's mouth is a big, fat li-" Cloudtail's comment was cut off with a screech as Tornear threw himself at the white tom. The white she-cat leaped at Sandstorm, and Birchfall saw Breezepaw rush toward him.

The apprentice was much smaller than him, but he was quick. Birchfall was able to land a few quick blows to the tom's head and chest, but soon he was darting about too fast for Birchfall to keep up. The small gray tom bounded straight for Birchfall, knocking him onto his side. Birchfall kicked his back legs with perfect aim, so that they smacked Breezepaw square in the chest, sending the smaller cat flying through the air. Birchfall jumped to his paws just in time to see the WindClan cats fleeing into their own territory.

"Birchfall, are you hurt?" asked Sandstorm, her own side scratched and bleeding a little. Cloudtail looked fine except for a small scratch on his nose.

"I'm good. I only had an apprentice to deal with," he said condescendingly, giving a final scowl toward their disappearing enemies.

"Good. Let's get back to camp and report this to Firestar."

Little did they know, three shadowy figures turned and began heading away from the battle scene and away from the Clans, with only a _whisper _of sound.


	4. Chapter 3

"Well? What did you find out?" Coal demanded, his yellow eyes flashing excitedly.

Whisper and Ember looked at Mallow, who had whined the entire way back about how much he _really _wanted to be the one to tell Coal about what they had found. The she-cats kept quiet while he spoke, his usually boisterous and sarcastic attitude replaced with a calm and serious tone.

"So, we found the border that Whisper had scented, and followed it until we could smell some different cats. We think that's the boundary between the two groups. We explored a bit, and then Ember caught some prey, so we took a short break to eat. Then, when we were almost finished, we could hear some other cats, so we tried to find where they were, and there was this stream, with woodland on one side and moorland on the other. There was a group of cats on each side, yowling at each other about boundaries and prey-stealing and such, then the group of cats that were on the woodland side crossed the stream and they all fought. It was pretty impressive. They know what they're doing," he finished, shooting Whisper an arrogant glance to try and rub it in her face how amazing he thought he was.

Coal sat still, contemplating and thinking over the new information. The three younger cats waited silently and patiently for his response, so the only sound was the gentle rustling of leaves. Whisper secretly hoped they would be sent on another task. She loved the thrill of it all, the way she never get caught and always succeeded. It was like she was made for these jobs, for this life, even if it wasn't the most pleasant. She had never thought about it being bad that she was taking away other cat's lives. She just knew that Coal wanted it done, and if she didn't obey, there would be serious consequences. Serious, _painful _consequences.

"I'm going to talk to Blaze, Hawk and Fern about it. I want you three to go visit the queens. Branch's kits are almost old enough to be taught, and Tansy should've had hers by now. Be back before the sun sets," he ordered, then he got up and disappeared into the undergrowth, his strong muscles rippling impressively under his dark pelt. Whisper stared in awe, but a trickle of fear crawled down her spine at the same time. That just backed up her need to obey, no matter what she was ordered to do. Getting in a fight with a cat that powerful; she would be fresh-kill for sure.

Without any hesitation, Whisper began to saunter her way out of the clearing, with Ember and Mallow on either side of her. Ember's small calico body was itching to push in front of her and sprint to their destination; Whisper could tell. Her whiskers twitched in irritation, and she kept trying to accelerate the pace, but she hated straying from a group or being alone, so Whisper knew she wouldn't leave them. Whisper stifled a sigh, and quickened to a trot.

It wasn't long before the three cats had left the forest behind them; they were now travelling on blank, grassy hills, rolling into the distance, each one almost identical to the next. There was a few clumps of wildflowers growing, but that was the only living thing other than the grass on the bare mounds of meadow.

"Why do we have to go see them? If Coal really wants to check how they're doing, can't he just go himself?" whined Mallow, glaring at the ground. Whisper flicked his side lightly with her tail.

"Coal has stuff to do," she informed him for probably the hundredth time. Mallow opened his mouth to say something, but Whisper cut him off. "_Besides,_ we don't exactly have a choice. He told us to. So now we're doing it. Gotta problem?"

Mallow turned his bright blue eyes on her, narrowing them into slits. "What if I do?" he asked, making his voice as deep and 'menacing' as he could.

So quick he didn't even know it was coming, Whisper crouched down in the long grass, then sprung herself forwards and onto the dark gray tom. She kept her claws sheathed, and landed heavily on his back so that his body collapsed onto the soft earth and the wind was knocked out of his lungs. She repositioned herself so that he was pinned down and unable to move or get up, and smirked at him while he gasped for breath. When he started breathing regular, he fixed Whisper with a look of vehement fury, slightly baring his teeth.

"I always win, Mallow. So don't even try," she teased, then stepped lightly off of him and turned to Ember, who had sat down to watch their scuffle with a slightly amused, slightly annoyed look on her face.

"Let's g-" Whisper's mew was cut off as Mallow pounced at her from behind and sent her toppling to the ground. Her green eyes flashed and she bit lightly on one of the paws that now held her down. Mallow jumped back and cried out in surprise, and while he was distracted, Whisper jumped up and thwacked him over the head with one of her dainty paws. She raised her other paw, preparing to hit him again, but he backed up and sighed dramatically.

"Fine. You win," he admitted, and looking quite disgruntled, began walking again.

Ember trotted up beside him and nudged his side with her nose. "Don't feel too bad. You were doing pretty good before she completely murdered you!" she taunted playfully, and Mallow bumped her with his hip.

"Better watch out Ember, I might have to tackle you next," he retorted, and Whisper rolled her eyes.

Soon the landscape was becoming more decorated with plants and rocks, making all three cats feel more comfortable and less vulnerable. They came to a wide stream that tinkled merrily as it splashed over stones and onto the sandy banks. The cats split up to hunt, and soon they were off again, following the stream left. It was quiet, except for some quiet chattering once in awhile, and their trip progressed quickly. Finally, they arrived.

In front of them was a large, steep hill, covered with thick grass and a couple of wildflowers. Near the bottom of the slope were some large stones in front of a cave that was too dark to see into. The stream they had been following curved off sharply to the right, into a new forest that Whisper had never been in.

Ember darted forward, toward the opening of the cave and called out in her soft, high voice, "Tansy? Lavender? Branch?"

A cheerful, vivacious voice replied, echoing from inside the cave, "Ember, is that you?"

**Thanks for reading, I'll hopefully update soon-ish, like around Tuesday or Thursday depending on how busy I am. I hope you liked it, please review! **

**-Sky**


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